The geek in question: Jeff Sandquist

The job title: Senior Director, Platform Evangelism

How long have you been with the company?
I think it’s been about 12 years. I get a plaque every once and a while to remind me. I started as a contractor answering phones for Product Support Services.

So, if you’ve been here that long, you’ve gotten to witness Microsoft’s shift toward transparency — including your own “peer to peer over a beer” work with Channel 9. What are the limits of that transparency? How does it feel knowing management reads your blog?

When I first started here, I was terrified of the higher ups. They were almost like Santa Claus — these mythical figures running these billion dollar businesses. I used to be so scared of Sanjay that I would actually go down a different hallway rather than talk to him.

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Talking about transparency, transgender health care coverage, and ushering out the era of table-pounding Microsoft managers with General Manager Megan Wallent, formerly known as Michael Wallent.

What are you working on right now?
Right now I’m the general manager of an unnamed group.

…Ha! Pure Microsoft!
My group is the conglomeration of a bunch of different things including Power Shell, Server Management UI, the over-all Server UI models, plus a bunch of other infrastructure pieces, plus Softgrid. So, we don’t really have an all-up name for it, but the pseudo-name is WinMan.

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The geek in question: Miguel Susffalich

The job title: SDET, BizTalk/Oslo
(and Peruvian rock star)

What are you working on?

I’m an SDET working in the Distributed Application Server team of the Connected Systems Division, specifically working in features for BizTalk Server and Oslo.

How did you get your gig at Microsoft?

I did a five year software engineering degree in Peru at UPC, and one of my career goals was to work at Microsoft. Last year I tried every option available to get in touch — I submitted my resume through the careers portal, I got into the rockstar coding contest on Jobsblog, and I had a friend refer me. I’m not sure how I actually got to the recruiter, but I got a call in August saying that my visa had been approved and I was able to take the next steps! And here I am! Continue reading →